Creativity
by Eevetta
Summary: Oneshot. Shikamaru spends an afternoon watching the clouds with a certain blonde. Who knew clouds could form such weird pictures? “That one reminds me of you Shikakun!” “It does?” “Of course. Your name means ‘deer’ after all.” InoShika.


CREATIVITY

**Summery: **one-shot. Shikamaru spends an afternoon watching the clouds with a certain blonde teammate. Who knew clouds could form such weird pictures.

**Disclaimer: **Naruto doesn't belong to me.

I don't know if this idea has been done before, since I read more of Saku/Sasu then Ino/Shika, so I'm sorry if your fic is similar to this one. And this is my first time doing these two characters interacting with one another, so forgive me if they're a bit OOC. Although, I don't think they are. Oh well.

**N>A>R>U>T>O**

Most people would find watching clouds all day very dull and boring, but for a person like Nara Shikamaru, it was truly heaven. Watching the white puffs things lazily flow across the sky, never having many burdens imposed on him, playing nice games of Shoji and Go, that was what he wished to do with the remainder of his life.

Of course he also thought about getting married with an average girl and then have a daughter and then a son. After they were married off themselves, then he can retire and finally have the life he wanted. Too bad there wasn't a single girl he knew that wuld want to be wedded off to a lazy bum like him. He sighed and closed his eyes, enjoying the small breeze that was present.

Poke poke.

Shikamaru's eyes twitched.

Someone was poking his cheek. He opened one eye and found a pair of sky blue eyes starting curiously at him. He frowned while the other grinned.

"Hi Shika-kun! Cloud watching again you lazy bum?" Shikamaru gave her an annoyed look.

"What do you want Ino? We've already done our mission for today. Don't you have somewhere to go to? Or someone to chase?" Of course he was talking about Sasuke. Ino knew that, but he was surprised when she just gave him a sad smile. She shook her head.

"Didn't you know Shika that I've given up on Sasuke?" Now that startled the Chuunin a bit. Ino giving up on Sasuke? He didn't know it was actually possible! He wasn't oblivious to the fact that she called Sasuke without the '_kun' _suffix, nor to the fact that she added that suffix at the end of his name.Upon seeing her teammate's surprised look, she grinned again.

"Besides, 'Forehead Girl' has already gotten him, so there's no point continuing on chasing him. Don't look so surprised Shika-kun."

"It's not like you to give up so easily, so how can I not be?" he inquired.

"I've been chasing him since I was five year old Shika, so it's time for me to stop," was Ino's reply, sitting down on the bench next to the lazy genius. "And also…" The teen lifted an eyebrow as he noticed a faint pink hue come onto the blonde's face. "I like someone else."

"Who?" he questioned, intrigued, yet he didn't want to admit it. She gave him a playful smile.

"I'm not telling." Shikamaru frowned, but shrugged thinking it would be too troublesome trying to get her to tell, and turned back his gaze towards the clouds. Besides it wasn't his business, or was it?

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked, the faint pink hue appearing again on her face. He gave her a weird look., but again shrugged.

"Go ahead." Beaming, Ino laid down on the ground, arms and legs fanning out. She closed her eyes and sighed happily. She then opened them and looked up towards the clouds.

The breeze was nice, and everything around them looked and sounded so peaceful, if you ignore the noise on the busy streets taht is.You could also have easy access on seeing the clouds. It was no wonder her teammate picked this particular spot to cloud watch. Looking at the clouds, her attention shifted to a cluster of them above some trees. She turned her head slightly and examined them, a form appearing before her eyes.

"Cute, a bunny rabbit!" The teen next to her turned his head towards the blonde.

"A rabbit?"

"Yeah!" Ino chirped. She then pointed to the group of clouds. "See, those are its ears…oh and that's the tail over there near that tree…and if you make it out, you can tell it's jumping over a log…no wait, it looks more like a big tree." Shikamaru sweatdropped. Still, he had to admit that he saw the same thing too.

"Is it even possible for a rabbit to jump over a tree?"

"No, but maybe it's a giant rabbit." He sweatdropped again. Ino sat up and looked to another bunch of clouds.

"Oh Shika-kun, look! That looks like a butterfly trapped in a spider web. Poor bug, wouldn't want to be in its shoes."

_Not like butterflies have any shoes. _Shikamaru thought sarcastically. He looked at where she was pointing too and frowned. He could see a butterfly, but no spider web.

"I don't know, it looks more like a butterfly on a giant snowflake to me," he replied, not noticing Ino's wide eyes. The girl now felt giddy over the fact that her teammate was joining in. She wondered if he even knew that he just got pulled in her lil' game of distinguishing clouds. Bursting with enthusiasm, she immediately tried to find some more clouds for him to evaluate. She then pointed to a big one that just hung over the academy.

"That one Shika-kun, tell me what you see." He sighed while saying 'troublesome', and looked at the specific cloud. He blinked.

"I see…" he paused. She leaned in closer to hear. He opened his mouth. "A pig beating up a sakura tree." Ino face faulted. Shikamaru couldn't help but give a small chuckle. She gave a pout.

"That was not funny!" Although the appeal of her beating 'Forehead Girl' wasn't all that bad. But with that monstrous strength of hers, she knew Sakura would kick her ass pretty easily and quickly.

"Couldn't help it. But I was telling the truth when I said I saw a pig. It was smelling a flower, don't know which one though."

"Maybe a cosmo?"

"I don't know what it looks like."

"It should be, it's my favorite," she said while smiling. She looked back at the sky. It was really pretty to look at. Maybe she should do this more often. If she did, she'd be able to hang out more with her Shikamaru. At the thought of 'her Shikamaru', she blushed. She turned his way.

Snore.

She sweatdropped.

The idiot was asleep, or so she thought. She decided to lean closer.

She didn't know why she was attracted to him. After all he wasn't as handsome as Sasuke, and his laziness annoyed her to no end. Still, something drew her to him. Maybe because he cared more for her than any other person? He was always the one worried for her safety, and he was always the one who protected her from danger.

Her sensei and Chouji protected her a lot too, but not as much as Shikamaru. She never questioned him about it, thinking it was only because she was his teammate, but now…

He knew she was looking at him, and very intently he might add, but he didn't know why. It was all too strange. It was all too troublesome. Especially when she was making him kind of nervous. He felt her lean closer, and in his mind he was panicing. It grew when he felt a finger touch his forehead and traveling down the bridge of his nose. It then went to his left cheek, and she giggled as she poked it. He twitched in irritation. What the heck was she doing?

He tensed when her finger traced his lips; the bottom one first before going to the top. Dread welled up in him as he felt her start to lean down. Two inches away, he snapped his eyes open and she immediately jerked back and move two feet away from him, blushing furiously. She preoccupied herself with a flower, trying to ignore her crush's glance at her, and trying to calm her beating heart. Shikamaru was trying to do the same. In their minds they thought the same thing.

_What just happened?_

Ino sighed, and mentally banged her head on a wall. _Stupid stupid stupid stupid! What the hell was I thinking trying to steal a kiss from him? Now I'll have trouble looking him in the eye! Oh what should I do, what should I do?_ She inwardly cried.

Just then, she looked up and saw something that quickly erased all her worries. She turned to her companion while giving off a smile. Shikamaru groaned in his head. Earlier she was ignoring him and very embarrassed(though he couldn't blame her), and now she was smiling at him and looking like the incident before never happened. So very troublesome. He gave her a questioned look.

"Lookie look. That one reminds me of you Shika-kun!" She pointed to a big cloud above the Hokage tower. He frowned.

"It does?"

"Of course. Your name means 'deer' after all." Oh now he got it, she meant the animal. Come to think of it, it did look like a deer, a stag to be precise, but only if you look at it sideways. "Although, it looks like its running away from something."

He looked closer. It did look like it was being chased, but by what? Ino suddenly choked as she managed to distinguish it.

"Now what's worng?" The girl flushed.

"Well…um…ah, don't you think…it looks like a…uh…a pig?" _What?_ He squinted his eyes at the cloud, its shape coming together. He noticed four feet, a tail, the body, and finally the head and snout.

Yup, it was a pig. Although, it looked too big to be just an ordinary pig. It could have been a boar, or maybe the pig was on steroids to make it so big. Still, he couldn't figure out why she would be embarrassed.

Wait.

There were puffy clouds floating around the one that looked like a pig…or boar…or whatever. Once he realized what they were, he sweatdropped.

Hearts.

Those little fluffs were heart shaped. No wonder Ino was blushing. The pig/boar seemed to be in love with the deer, and she had said the deer reminded her of him. He inwardly chuckled and shook his head. _How troublesome this girl is to have thought such a thing._ Maybe he should just flat out lie to her and tell her that it didn't look anything like a pig. Yeah, that's what he should do.

"Nah, I don't see a pig, and I don't think the deer is running away from something. I think it's just having fun running, it's what deer do. Seriously Ino, you have one heck of an imagination." With that he closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh.

Ino looked crestfallen, but at the same time relieved. _So he doesn't know. Phew, that's good. Not that I should be worried, Shika-kun isn't into romanctic stuff so he should be clueless._

For the rest of the afternoon, the two teens just sat in silence and watched the clouds float by. All afternoon they did this and before they knew it, the sky slowly turned orange-red. Ino stood up and stretched.

"Well Shika-kun, it's getting late and I need to get home."

"Hn."

"Is that your way of saying 'good bye' or 'see ya around?'"

"Hn." She sighed.

"Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow Shika-kun!" He just waved goodbye, not bothering to turn around to see her off. Well, Ino wasn't going to let him off that easily. "Shikamaru" she said in a surprisingly serious voice. That made the lazy bum turn to her. Okay note to self: Speak in a serious voice for 'lazy ass' to notice you'. Got it? Yeah got it.

"What is it?" he asked in a bored tone, yet looked at her with an attentive gaze. Her serious expression then melted into a smile. He blinked.

"Today was fun, I'll admit. Maybe we could cloud watch together again tomorrow?" She looked at him hopefully. He just stared at her with an unreadable face. Should he or should he not? He had to admit, he never knew she had such a serene side to her, or have such a weird yet creative mind. Hn, why not? He enjoyed her company (of course he would rather face an enraged Godaime than tell her that).

"As long as you don't rant about stuff the whole time, I'm fine with it." It was a complete lie, but again he would never admit that to her. Ino smiled again, her eyes glowing with happiness. Unexpectedly, he felt heat rush to his cheeks. No way, was he blushing? He touched his right cheek. Aw hell he was. Gaah, so troublesome. The blonde teen didn't notice though.

"Thank you Shika-kun!" And just as the blush was unexpected, Ino's action was also unexpected. She knew what she was doing, but she didn't seem to care. She gave him a peck on the cheek and happily sprinted away from the building towards her home, giggling all the way. All that heard her just gave her weird looks. But did she care?

Of course not.

His expression to that kiss was all she needed in her photographic memory (which by the way wasn't as good as Sakura's, but was still unrivaled compared to most) to keep her smiling for days. A stunned, blushing Shikamaru was very hard to come by. It was probably the only time he ever looked like that. Giggling some more, she decided to buy some dango before she went home.

And what are our dear Shikamaru's thoughts? Well, for once he was actually speechless to say the least. But did that stop him from giving a small tiny smile?

Nope!

_Che, what a troublesome girl._ He then took one last look at the clouds before standing up and stretching, getting ready to go home. _But..._ He thought, before getting off the building by using the stairs. _At least I've found someone who might make my wish come true._

**N>A>R>U>T>O**

Fin

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